He was born at
Trefela, near
Llangwm, Monmouthshire, and is believed to have been educated at the
University of Oxford. His first position was as a curate, at
Peterston-super-Ely,
Glamorgan. In 1633
William Erbery, Vicar of St.Mary's, Cardiff, Cradock his curate there, and William Wroth, were reported to
William Laud, and the
Court of High Commission turned them out for unorthodox preaching, and on the technical grounds and acid test of orthodoxy, of refusing to read the
Book of Sports. From late in 1634 Cradock spent almost a year in
Wrexham, preaching, and making a convert of
Morgan Llwyd. From there Cradock had to move to
Herefordshire, where he met
Vavasor Powell. With
John Miles, Cradock, Erbery, Powell, and Llwyd are the group of recognised Puritan leaders, who founded the later Welsh
Nonconformist congregations, whether
Baptist,
Congregationalist,
Presbyterian or
Quaker. He was also at
Shrewsbury at this period.
Sir Robert Harley, of
Brampton Bryan, Herefordshire, took Cradock in, during 1639. He moved on to
Llanfair Waterdine, and an independent congregation there. On the outbreak of the
English Civil War the Llanvaches congregation, an independent
conventicle, moved with Cradock to
Bristol, where there was an independent church at
Broadmead. Since royalist forces then occupied Bristol, in 1643, some moved again to London, and made contact with
Henry Jessey, who had been a supporter of the congregation from the start; Cradock preached with Jessey at
All-Hallows-the-Great. In 1641 Cradock was in the group of preachers for Wales authorized by the
Long Parliament : others were Erbery,
Ambrose Mostyn,
Richard Symonds, and
Henry Walter. These Welsh radicals formed a tight and effective lobbying group, and held together until the mid-1650s. it was also specified that Symonds, Henry Walter and Cradock should preach in Welsh. Cradock had already shown he could do that in 1645, preaching to captured royalist Welshman after the
battle of Naseby. He was one of the “Welsh saints”, who commanded troops of
Thomas Harrison with Vavasor Powell and
Jenkin Jones. He was later appointed the regular preacher to
Barebone's Parliament, at
St. Margaret's, Westminster. He was a supporter of
Oliver Cromwell, and when controversy arose over Cromwell's
Protectorate, he condemned Vavasor Powell's anti-Cromwell pamphlet
The Word of God. The majority of the Welsh Puritan group of which he had been a founder agreed with him. He withdrew, to a living at Llangwm. ==Works==